At Home with the Mthembu Family

So its been a few days since my last post, and a whole lot has happened in those few days. To start, I moved in with my homestay family. Their names are the mthembus and they're an amazing family. My mama, named Nokuthula, is a big zulu woman who doesn't speak a ton of english but has a big heart and is teaching me a lot despite our language barrier. She's a pretty strict mama compared to some of the others and doesn't let her daughters (including me) go out at night or have boyfriends (oops). Haha. Her oldest son is a cop in joburg and doesn't live with us. Then there's the oldest sister- Thah. She works at the hospital and is curretnly active in some of the big strikes that have been going on in South Africa (basically hospitals, schools and some police are striking about wages and president Zuma is in Asia instead of dealing with the problems here. You can check it out in the NY Times.) People are protesting like crazy though. Thah is also the best cook I have ever met in my life. In Zulu culture its the oldest daughters responsibility to cook most meals (thank God I'm not the oldest!) And Thah makes amazing dishes. Zulu food is mainly chicken, beef, rice, squash, cabbage, steamed bread and phutu which is kind of like cous-cous. Basically a lot of carbs and they get very offended if you don't help yourself to seconds and thirds. Let's just say my running workouts will start tomorrow! My next sister, Nelo, is 19 and I'm definitely the closest with her. She's absolutely gorgeous and all the guys in Cato Manor want to marry her. Next is my brother, named boy, who's 16. He's been basically bumming around for the last 2 weeks because his school is on strike as well and who knows when it will resume. The very first morning I was here I woke up to boy blasting 50 cent (an old school rapper for all you old farts) throughout the house. I actually just woke up and he's blasting club music as I'm writing this haha. He's cute though and is the little man of the house even though he's only 16. Their father passed away a few years ago (I'm not sure how) so now boy has to take on his responsibilities. He waits up for everyone to be home at night before he locks up the house. All the kids speak english because that's the only language they speak in school- which to me is a load of crap. It creates a system where children who grow up in the rural areas who are never exposed to english are stuck in those areas and have no way to elevate themselves through higher education. But that's just me. My youngest sister is Khansyiele and she's 3 (she's my mamas granddaughter). Her parents are both cops in joburg and didn't think it'd be safe to raise a daughter there so she lives with us. She's managed to attach herself to my hip. Even though she doesn't speak a word of english, I feel like I can understand her as well as anyone in the family. The 2 of us will just look at eachother and start hysterically laughing.

The house is really much nicer than I expected- its one of the only homes with a gated barbed wired fence surrounding it and there are more locks on the doors than I've ever seen. So I feel very safe at home. I have my own room and everyone else shares 2 bedrooms, which I feel really bad about but it's my program's rule. We have electricity, and a tv and let me tell you, South Africans LOVE their tv. Every night when I get home from school the whole family gathers around the tv and watches soap operas for hours. They have one big hit called Generations that everyone loves. Its a mix between zulu and english but there are subtitles so I can follow along too. We don't have hot water so everything must be boiled first. We also don't have a shower so I have to do that over at school. There are a TON of kids on my street and they just want to come and hang out and play with us "molungus." I'm sure you can figure out what that word means pretty easily haha. We stick out pretty bad here.

My zulu is getting a little better- I've mastered the basic introductory conversations and were moving pretty quickly through it in class. I'm learning a lot from my 3 year old sister because she points to things in her coloring books and makes me repeat. There are 3 basic clicks in zulu (x, q, and c) and my name actually also has a click. Its Ale-(click like you're riding a horse)-a. Pretty sweet! Zulu is pretty difficult though just because its so much different than anything I've ever heard. For instance- "ngiyajaboulaukukwazi" means "I'm happy to meet you." And that's an easy one because it doesn't even have any clicks!

Anyway I've got lots more to tell you about but ill save that for later in the week- I don't want to put any of you to sleep. I'm having a great time, and I'm excited that our classes officially start this week!

Sala kahle, (Good Bye)

Alexa